The Same All Over

Materials

pictures of school and nearby homes,

apartment buildings, stores, schools,

firehouse, police station, and so on

pictures of similar buildings from

other communities

Instructions

Find out the population of the local city or town, as well as five or six
more nearby cities, towns, or villages. Select city names with which
children may be familiar.
l Print each city name and its population in large letters on a sheet of
drawing paper.
What To Do
1. Engage the children in a discussion about the area where they live. Talk
about how when you count the people who live in a place the term for
this is "population." Display the sheet of paper that lists the local city or
town and its population.
2. Recite the number aloud and ask the children to repeat it. Explain that
they themselves make up part of this population number.
3. Set out dry-erase boards or paper and markers and invite the children
to write the number on their dry-erase board or on the paper.
4. Select individual children to stand up and recite the big number again,
then have them erase the number.
5. Display another paper with a city name and its population and recite
it aloud. Invite the children to recite the number and city name aloud,
and then write it on their dry erase board or paper.
6. Continue until the children explore writing and saying the populations
of all the selected local cities, towns, and villages.
Assessment
To assess the children's learning, consider the following:
l Are children able to repeat each city name?
l Can children repeat each number aloud?
l Can the children explain what "population" means?